Death

In true “Borat” fashion, Sasha Baron Cohen has decided to toe the line of propriety and release a statement about Kim Jong Il’s death… as the main character from his new movie, The Dictator. The statement, which was faxed to The Huffington Post, reads as follows:
I am saddened to learn of the passing of my dear friend Kim Jong-Il. Our thoughts go out to his wife and 813 children.”K-Jo” was a great leader, good friend and average double’s badminton partner. He died as he lived, in 3 inch lifts. An extraordinary man, he did so much to spread compassion, wisdom and uranium throughout the world.
On behalf of myself, Ahmadinejad, Chavez, and Newt Gingrich, we would like to welcome his son, Kim Jon-Un into the “Axis of Evil”
Oh, my. So many different ways that this could be offensive. Mocking the dead? Hating on Gringrich? Let’s just go for the fact that Cohen now fancies himself a dictator that mocks eulogizes real-life tyrants.
Also, here’s a copy of the actual fax: More ▸

Every time Amy Winehouse was spotted coming out of a recording studio or with mega-producer, Mark Ronson, fans would become hopeful that the follow-up to 2006’s breakthrough album, Back to Black, would soon be released. Alas, she passed away from alcohol poisoning before her third record could be completed. But now her label has announced… More ▸

The long-awaited results of Amy Winehouse’s autopsy have arrived, and in the end it wasn’t illegal substances that killed the soul songstress. It was alcohol. According to the coroner’s report, Winehouse died with five times the legal British drunk driving limit in her bloodstream. The report described cause of her demise as “death by misadventure,”… More ▸

Well, sometimes conventional wisdom is wrong. After Amy Winehouse’s untimely death last month, the smart money (if there are actually people out there ghoulish enough to bet on such a thing) was that drugs played a role despite vehement denials from her father, Mitch, who insisted that she had been clean, at least when it… More ▸

Shortly after Amy Winehouse died, her father, Mitch, distributed his daughter’s clothing to fans outside of her London flat. But that was not the end of her sartorial legacy. British clothing company Fred Perry has just announced that it will release the clothing line she had created with the company before she died after having… More ▸

Amy Winehouse was memorialized today in a private ceremony today in North London, which was then followed by cremationat a Golders Green crematorium. Mark Ronson, the Jewish producer who helped create her 2006 master work “Back to Black,” attended the services. When news of her death first hit, Ronson tweeted that he lost his “musical… More ▸

Despite shutting down the White House switchboard, supporters of Jonathan Pollard were unsuccessful in helping the convicted spy attain temporary release to attend his father’s funeral in South Bend, Ind. earlier this week. JTA online archivist Anne Mintz noticed an interesting precedent for this appeal in our archive: On August 3, 1940 Vladimir "Zev" Jabotinsky passed… More ▸